Sarah Palin's address to the RNC was many things. But, to me it underscored who and what Obama and Biden are running against. In one single speech, Palin hit upon a myriad of themes that have poisoned the body politic during the Dubya era -- hubris, corrupting drive for power, projection (i.e., accusing Dems of the very things she has actually done), and Orwellian propagandizing (i.e., dog whistle code phrases, and repeating lies often enough that they are perceived as truth).
These are things that I picked up on because that's my particular lens color, my particular liberal bias. I was on the lookout for those elements since they are part of the GOP playbook, and have been pointed out many times on this and other blogs.
Yet, for all of the punditry acclaim for this speech, it was the overall tone of last night that has me breaking out my checkbook for Barack Obama, and I anticipate galvanizing Obama's support even further.
THE TONE IS THE MESSAGE
Most of the pundits have gotten into a lather over how Sarah Palin's RNC speech hit it "out of the park," but I have to question the overall tone of her address, given that part of the intended audience was undecided voters. This was the proverbial "red meat" getting tossed to GOP activists and neocons -- nothing unexpected about attacks on Obama and Biden. But, Palin (and Romney and especially Giuliani) went to the sarcasm and mockery well early and often. Aside from the snide and uncivil tenor that it created, it's also the current GOP method of whitewashing what their real agenda is and avoiding any discussion of policy or substantive matters of import.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM 1992 CULTURE WARS
The GOP's disastrous 1992 culture wars convention introduced speaker after speaker that explicitly laid out the social conservative agenda, and amplified disdain for gays, working women, minorities, immigrants, and anything having to do with the Sixties. They minced no words, and it sent GOP fiscal conservative/social libertarians running to Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Bush 41 pretty much lost the election the minute Pat Buchanan declared his cultural war on the majority of the country. The GOP overreached, and they got a pushback that sent Bill Clinton to the White House.
Unfortunately, the GOP lesson from 1992 was not to change their message, but to paint a happy face on it and adopt an entire lexicon of dog whistle phrases in their communications. This whole system of code language would get their message out to the base without letting more moderate voters in on what the GOP's actual intentions are.
PUTTING THE HAPPY FACE ON AN OVERREACHING AND UGLY MESSAGE
And the happy face is exactly what we now have in Sarah Palin. Her obfuscating (and outright lying) on the Bridge to Nowhere, her fiscal record, her love of federal earmarks before she was against them, her exercise of power, etc. is standard issue boilerplate stuff straight out of the Bush/Cheney playbook.
But, where I see a potential parallel to 1992 is the overreaching, not in what she said (since she did not explicitly go into her more controversial policy positions), but in how she said it. Subjecting Obama and the Dems to snarky ridicule plays well to an audience weaned on a steady diet of Rush Limbaush, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, et. al.
DECIDING THE UNDECIDEDS
But, to that 8% of the electorate -- the undecideds -- this might be a revelation, a partial unmasking of who these people really are. The focus group reaction to Palin has been decidedly more mixed than the cable and talk radio pundits who are more interested in drama than substance. At some point, the Republicans will need to address pocketbook issues other than drilling and taxes.
As has been pointed out on Pollster.com, Obama holds a narrow lead, but the undecided pool has shrunk considerably since last week. In order for McCain to pull even in the overall electorate, he would need about a 40 percent advantage over Obama in the undecided vote. That's a very tall order, and I question whether speeches like last night's can help deliver those kinds of numbers. It's definitely possible because even with the DNC last week, these voters still have not decided who they would support.
CALL TO ACTION
The speeches last night reemphasized the reasons why I do not want these people in control. For me, it was a call to action, and this is the first time since 1992 that I will donate to a presidential candidate.
http://www.barackobama.com
UPDATE: Looks like I'm not the only one that has been spurred into action!
http://www.dailykos.com/...
PALIN RAISES MONEY -- FOR OBAMA! **Exclusive** Obama scores $8 million since Palin's speech from over 130,000 donors - on pace to hit $10 million by the time John McCain hits stage, campaign says... Developing..
UPDATE #2: During the same period, it looks like the Palin speech was only good for an additional $1 million to the McCain camp...